It’s that time of the year, when the General Elections are round the corner. While the dates are not out yet, we may be less than 75 days away from the first round of polling. Even if the outcome seems somewhat like a foregone conclusion, the next three-four months will be full of political and media frenzy.
One of the direct impacts will be felt on the IPL. The dates have not been announced yet, pending the announcement of election dates. In the past, IPL has moved to outside India during the election years. But it is unlikely to be the case this year, and that could complicate the international cricketing calendar more than just a wee bit.
It’s a golden period for news channels, who are having a windfall year, which started with the mega Ram Mandir event, before the elections programming takes over. June will feature theT20 World Cup in US and West Indies, a summer bonanza for news media, despite the odd match timings.
Going by how things have been, there isn’t much new one can expect from our news channels in the coverage of these elections. Innovation in Indian elections coverage came to a standstill about a decade-and-a-half ago, and since then, news channels have focused on speed rather than engagement as the primary target, creating a sense of sameness across platforms, as they battle each other to be first to report new information. Legacy brands like Aaj Tak will continue to hold the advantage, when the content across platforms is differentiated per se.
Neutrality is, of course, a thing of the past, and not even on the table right now. And a potentially one-sided contest allows news channels to legitimise their bias, as the “voice of the nation”, even if the idea is in direct conflict with core tenets of good journalism.
It will be more exciting to see how digital news brands manage to cover elections. They do not have the luxury of big budgets that the TV channels have, but seem to have more intent to drive innovation and engagement, which can lead to a few compelling shows.
Television seems to have become a medium where events, whose existence is outside the television ecosystem (politics, sports, etc.) are driving the buzz, even as content native to the medium (GECs, movies, etc.) remain inert and unexciting.
The first half of 2024 will do well for television. But it’s from July that the real challenge will begin, of being able to sustain interest in the medium, and the revenue it earns, when the big-ticket events are all over. I’m afraid that we may soon be entering the trickiest phase of Indian television in July this year. More on it when we get there.